


Cardigans, Cameras, and Coffee

by rage_quitter



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-23 01:49:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4858580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rage_quitter/pseuds/rage_quitter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gavin Free thought his only chance with a model would be for his photography career.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cardigans, Cameras, and Coffee

This was the opportunity of a lifetime. Gavin Free, up-and-coming fashion photographer, was being given the chance to work with, of all people James Ryan Haywood. The model was an absolute legend.

Gavin fretted the entire cab ride to the studio, fixing his collar, hoping his button down wasn’t too dressy or too casual, running his fingers through his messy blonde hair trying to get it to move in the direction he wanted it to, triple checking he had batteries for his camera and plenty of storage space.

Introductions were a blur through his nerves as he introduced himself to Haywood’s manager, and he must have passed off as a coherent and competent man because the manager seemed to like him well enough. The studio was already set up, so Haywood’s manager left him to adjusting the lights with the small team of interns and hooking up the computers with his camera. He directed the backdrop to compliment the outfits Haywood would be modeling and considered props.

Finally Haywood’s makeup crew was finished. Gavin’s palms were sweating, but he played off as casual, as though it were every day he worked with one of the fashion scene’s most loved male models.

“Gavin Free, right?”

The voice was fairly deep, a little gravelly, but friendly. Gavin turned around from the computer and found himself rendered speechless by him. Jesus, he was hotter in person than in any of the pictures. He floundered for his voice. “I, uh, yeah, yep, that’s me,” he said, internally cursing himself. “James Haywood, yeah?”

“Call me Ryan,” he said with a grin, holding out his hand.

Gavin hoped his hand wasn’t too sweaty as he shook his hand. “Sure. Shall we get started, then?”

Ryan followed Gavin in front of the backdrop. “So we’re not going to try anything too much for this shoot, it’s gonna be pretty simple, since it’s mostly just cardigans and sweaters you’re modeling.” Gavin directed lighting and had Ryan stand in front of the backdrop, moving back and forth as he aimed for the perfect angles. This guy had no bad angles, he thought as he asked him to tilt his head slightly.

“Dim the light a little bit more… okay, perfect. Hold it…” Gavin crouched, and was free to admire Ryan secretly through the camera for a moment before taking a few shots. “Stay like that, let me get another angle.” He moved a bit to the left, held the camera slightly higher. His hands shook slightly and he muttered a curse.

“You okay there?” Ryan asked when Gavin lowered the camera.

“Yeah, I’m great!” Gavin half-lied. He was on the one hand more than thrilled to be working with Ryan, but was loathing his own lack of professionalism. “I forgot my coffee this morning, is all. I’m fine.”

“What kind of coffee do you like?” Ryan asked. He was very good at speaking without moving his pose.

Gavin lined up another shot and snapped a few pictures. “I like iced coffee. I know it’s a bit too cold for it right now, but frappes are my favorite, caramel and chocolate ones.” Gavin stood up and moved to the computer to look at the pictures.

“Those are pretty good,” Ryan agreed. He relaxed his pose and waved to an intern by the door. Gavin missed whatever he mouthed to them, but the intern nodded and slipped out of the room. “How do the pictures look?”

“Lovely!” Gavin exclaimed. He cleared his throat. “I mean, of course I’d like to make sure that I get the best possible shots, but they’re nice so far, if you wanted to see them.” He was used to showing his models the pictures after taking them, to see their opinion of the shots and how they could be improved.

Ryan move to stand at Gavin’s side while the interns chatted among themselves. Gavin swallowed nervously and his fingers trembled as he flipped through the pictures.

“Yeah, not bad,” Ryan agreed. “You’re pretty good, I’m surprised you haven’t worked with big magazines like this before. You’ve got a good eye for this.”

Gavin gleamed under the praise. “Thanks! I guess it’s ‘cause I’m so young and I’m not an American citizen so they’d have to pay for my visa and whatever. I’m very grateful for you letting me work with you, this could be a big break.”

Ryan patted Gavin on the back, and Gavin ignored the shiver down his spine. “I’m really not that special, Gavin, just a model. All I do is stand there and look pretty while you do all the work.”

Before Gavin could stop himself, he found himself mumbling, “You do a pretty good job of that.” He stiffened at Ryan’s startled laugh and his face felt very hot. He hunched his shoulders and kept his eyes very focused on the screen.

“We should work together again sometime,” Ryan suggested, his voice a little more of a purr than before. “Usually photographers are uppity and snooty and bossy, especially foreign born ones. But you’re all right.”

Gavin couldn’t help the smile spreading on his face. Both men jumped suddenly when an intern tapped their shoulders. “Sirs, shouldn’t we, uh, get back to the shoot?” he asked.

“Right, yeah!” Gavin scrambled for his camera. “I think we got enough shots of that one, so you can change now, and we’ll get the next one.”

“The blue one?”

Gavin nodded. Ryan was dragged off by his wardrobe team, and Gavin ordered a new backdrop and a light adjustment to account for the darker color.

Shortly before Ryan emerged from his dressing room, the intern who left a little while ago returned with two cups, one a clear plastic cup with swirls of brown and whipped cream, the other a can of Diet Coke. They spotted Gavin and hurried over. “Here you are, Mister Free,” they said a little breathlessly, handing him the cold coffee.

Gavin was surprised. “Thank you. Did… Ryan tell you to get this for me?”

The intern looked surprised. “Yes, sir. Did he…. He asked you to call him Ryan? He only does that for his wardrobe crew and his friends…” The intern laughed lightly. “Guess he must really like you. If you’ll excuse me, Mister Free…” The intern headed off to give Ryan his soda.

Gavin looked at the coffee in his hand. It was exactly what he’d told Ryan he liked, certainly loud enough for all the interns to hear. That was… very sweet of him.

Ryan came out with his soda in hand, wearing the blue cardigan and Gavin wanted him in front of his camera immediately. He wasn’t as hesitant this time, brushing his fingers on Ryan’s arms as he directed his pose. Every time he did Ryan’s lip curled up and Gavin shied away again, hiding his fluster.

And then Gavin wondered, after a few pictures, if his arms look that nice under the cardigan, why not show them off? Everyone seemed a little surprised by his suggestion of rolling his sleeves, but Ryan’s team quickly had them folded to a pretentiously rumpled look that looked damn good on the model and nobody questioned Gavin’s ideas after that. Ryan seemed quite amused.

“No coffee?” Gavin asked him as he showed him the next set of pictures.

Ryan glanced at the diet Coke in his hand and shrugged. “Caffeine makes me jittery.”

“So diet soda?”

“Yeah… I might have a mild addiction to this,” Ryan admitted with a grin. “They had to get me a full size recycling bin.”

Gavin laughed. “Really?”

“Yeah, I wish I was exaggerating.” Ryan turned his (stupidly, ridiculously pretty blue, isn’t that illegal?) eyes to Gavin’s partially consumed coffee by the computer. “I hope that was okay,” he said, nodding at it.

“Oh! Yes, it was really thoughtful of you, thank you!” Gavin beamed at him. “I didn’t expect you to have coffee brought for me.”

“I mean, you’d said you hadn’t had any. Don’t want my photographer fucking up the pictures because of something so easily fixed, right?”

Gavin forced a laugh. Of course. “Right. Um, so. The next one, I think, the red one?”

“Whatever you want, Gavin. Ah- you’re okay with me calling you Gavin, right?”

“Yeah, yeah! It’s fine! It is my name and all…” Gavin forced his stupid mouth to shut up.

Ryan’s chuckle was addicting, Gavin thought. “I’ll go change then.”

Gavin irritably jabbed the straw of his frappe in his mouth as Ryan strolled off. The ice cold cleared his head a little.

When Ryan came back out, Gavin had his head in his hands and an amused intern sympathetically patting his shoulder. Worry creased Ryan’s pretty face. “Are you okay?”

“Ughhh…” Gavin groaned. “Bloody… stupid brainfreeze.”

Ryan spotted the now nearly empty cup and covered his mouth to smother his laughter.

“Oh, stuff it,” Gavin mumbled, his face as hot as the roof of his mouth was cold. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

Gavin shook his head. “I’m fine,” he repeated. His head still hurt a little, but he grabbed his camera.

Halfway through this photoshoot, Gavin’s phone rang. He thanked every deity that ever existed that he’d changed his ringtone to something professional. “It, uh, it’s the airline,” he said, looking at the caller ID.

“By all means,” Ryan said as he relaxed his pose. “It’s probably important.”

Gavin stepped into the hall of the studio for the call. It was about a bag of luggage (with, granted, fairly unimportant things in it) that had been missing on his flight to America. He was pleased they’d found it and gave them the address he was staying at for shipping.

When Gavin returned, Ryan was sitting in a chair by the backdrop, reading a book. Gavin’s heart forgot how to function when he saw the glasses perched on his nose. He couldn’t help staring for a moment. No one noticed, thankfully, and Gavin headed over to the computer to upload the pictures he’d taken so far.

Ryan looked up after an intern tapped his shoulder, and set his book aside to join Gavin. “How was your call?”

“It was, eh, y’know. They found my missing luggage.”

“That’s good. Always a hassle when stuff goes missing.”

“Ugh, it’s the worst!” Gavin shook his head. He scanned through the pictures. “What were you reading?”

“Rereading some of the classics,” Ryan replied. “Right now working through _The Strange Case of_ _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_ again.”

“I think I read that in high school.”

“Probably. It’s not bad.”

Gavin looked up to see him still wearing his glasses. “I didn’t know you wore glasses.”

“Yeah, they’re reading glasses.”

“They look good on you.”

A grin curled on Ryan’s face.

“Also… gives me an idea. If you don’t mind modeling in glasses.”

Ryan looked surprised at that. “No, I don’t.”

“Perfect!”

Gavin scampered about, directing a new backdrop and lighting and this time, props. Ryan was settled in a comfortable chair, with a book in his hands. The interns seemed uncertain, but when Gavin showed them the pictures they fawned over his ideas. Gavin smiled proudly at Ryan’s thumbs-up, and tripped over his feet at the wink from him.

Far too soon, the photo session was wrapping up. Ryan was in his dressing room as Gavin was looking over the pictures. He felt proud of himself for his work, and for speaking his ideas. The pictures had gotten better as the day went on.

“Mister Free?”

Gavin looked up with a hum.

“I wanted to thank you.”

“For?”

“This experience. It’s always a joy working with Mister Haywood, of course, but the photographers…” The intern shook her head. “This was different. I think you’ve got good chemistry with him.”

Gavin’s face flushed as the intern scurried off.

Gavin was packing away his camera when Ryan exited, wearing the blue cardigan again. Apparently, perks of the job included his being able to keep the clothes. Gavin was focused on his camera as Ryan approached.

“Hey, Gavin.”

“Hi, Ryan.”

“This was fun.”

“Yeah, absolutely top!”

“I’m really looking forward to next time.”

Gavin glanced up. “Next time?”

“What, you don’t want to work with me again?”

“No, no, I didn’t say that!”

Ryan laughed. “I’ll definitely be in touch soon.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Gavin replied with a smile.

Ryan walked with Gavin to the door, to the annoyance of the interns, where they met with Ryan’s manager. Gavin shook hands with him again and thanked him for the opportunity, and did the same with Ryan.

Just before Gavin was about to walk out to meet his cab, Ryan grabbed his arm. “Oh, and, uh… here.” Ryan held out a folded piece of paper. “Thank you for working with me today.” His hand on top of the paper made it clear he didn’t want Gavin to open it yet.

Gavin accepted the paper and smiled. “The pleasure’s all mine,” he said.

With a final farewell Gavin headed outside to the waiting cab. As it pulled away he opened the paper and covered his almost audible squeak of joy at the phone number and the short message.

_By the way, I never said I wasn’t a fan of decaf coffee. There’s a little café I know nearby, if you’re interested._


End file.
